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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28272498">How to learn to love an idiot: a guide by 2min !</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphskies/pseuds/sapphskies'>sapphskies</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>dating sim type of beat [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Stray Kids (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>First Dates, M/M, Sorta Enemies to Lovers, cute bbies, dating sim wooo, hand holding, rocky at first and then they pick it up uwu, so much fluff i promise, temporary boyfriends</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:41:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,625</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28272498</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphskies/pseuds/sapphskies</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>⋆｡˚. ☁︎·̩͙✧ seungmin and minho struggle to bypass the demands of the system they harbour no trust towards,<br/>┊⊹♡˚.✧ and spend a nice first date at the seemingly perfect destination.</p><p>☇ a spin-off from the world of "how to set up the perfect carnival booth : a guide by lee felix"</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kim Seungmin/Lee Minho | Lee Know</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>dating sim type of beat [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2071020</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>47</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>How to learn to love an idiot: a guide by 2min !</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hello !! for starters, i want to clarify that this goes hand in hand with the universe of "how to set up the perfect carnival booth : a guide by lee felix" as i wanted to stretch on 2min's story bc i'm a sucker for enemies2lovers lol (even tho they're frenemies more than anything)<br/>you can read this without having read the previous story, but it does make more sense and work better following it, so i do implore u to, but you should be fine either way :]<br/>again! the 'coach' tech is taken - and at times, modified in areas where i needed to for the sake of the story - directly from the black mirror episode 'Hang The DJ'<br/>enjoy !!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Seungmin had initially joked about the stupid date by the pier, pre-planned by their lovely Coach systems, he hadn’t expected for the joke to actually become a thing of reality, until he was already <em>on</em> the date. The premise of the date followed a laid-out, supposedly ‘impeccably designed’ plan. It consisted of a picnic amongst a wide, grassy area, as well as a walk by a large body of water through which there definitely weren’t enough barriers to wipe out the possibility of Minho pushing him in.</p><p>Coach had even personally sent Seungmin over a lovely, fully prepped picnic basket, complete with the red and white chequered pattern that prevails in all of his cottagecore fantasy-driven daydreams. It was usually blue, actually, but he guessed red was fine too.</p><p>Retrospectively, Seungmin could see past the fact that he was going on a date – dates – with someone who he’d indefinitely had the least amounts of conversations with out of all of the council’s pristine members. Because, despite that, the premise was nice, the spring weather was at its peak, everything should go swimmingly enough for it to be<em> fine</em>.</p><p>Except, Seungmin should’ve realised, if things weren’t going too great from the get-go, that he had practically been destined for a terrible date instantly. He didn’t seem to ingrain such an idea into his head, however, quite obstinate on the idea that things could look up. They did not.</p><p>From the second Seungmin knocks on the door of Chan, Minho, and Changbin’s shared college-provided apartment, and the door opens to reveal his temporary boyfriend, he’s met with a scowl.</p><p>‘Already?’ Is the only thing that Seungmin can muster out, watching as Minho rolls his eyes and yells at Changbin – who looks to be hanging off of their couch, upside down – to <em>‘Fucking clean the kitchen before I get back’</em>.</p><p>‘I’m clearly frustrated that they had the younger individual in this fake relationship picking up the clearly more authoritative, goal-oriented, mature one.’ Minho finally answers, after having left the boy with silence while they silently walk down the hallway, towards the elevator.</p><p>Seungmin tenses up at the idea that he has to endure an elevator ride with this man. Then, he remembers he’ll spend the entire week with him and almost shivers as a chill runs over his spine, tingling the skin under his blue sweater.</p><p>‘What does being goal-oriented have to do with– whatever, look, I’m sorry, but we’re just following what Coach is telling us to do. Plus, I didn’t know you were bothered about that.’ Seungmin remarks, although he knows he could’ve very well stayed quiet – unfortunately, arguing was one of the boy’s favourite past-times.</p><p>‘How? Did you not sense my bitter tone in our texts?’</p><p>At that, Seungmin momentarily racks his brain in attempt at recalling the day’s earlier text exchange. Coincidentally, just as he does, the elevator pings before moving down.</p><p> </p><p><strong> <em>Kim Seungmin Physics Nerd: </em> </strong> <em>hey^^ i’m picking you up at 2:00pm ! coach packed cute little sandwiches and cookies :D</em></p><p><strong> <em>Minho: </em> </strong> <em>k</em></p><p> </p><p>Seungmin grimaces as the messages pop back into his head ‘Yeah, uh, you always text me like that, I didn’t really think much of it.’</p><p>Minho just shrugs. And until halfway through the car ride, they’re stuck back in an oddly ‘comfortable, awkward silence’ – comfortable in the sense that neither wanted to make small talk of any sort, but awkward in the sense that all that could be heard within such thickening hush was their footsteps and, at times, a sniffle, or a yawn.</p><p>‘That’s actually another thing I wanted to complain about,’</p><p>Oh boy.</p><p>Minho had been sat on the passenger’s seat, leaning his head against the window, his hair pressed against the glass and concealing parts of his vision, making it quite obvious that he isn’t really staring at the view. Seungmin had opted for light music, loud enough to fill the air with a much-needed liveliness, but quiet enough to allow himself to imagine that he’s simply anywhere else.</p><p>‘the picnic basket,’ he’d elaborated, even after Seungmin had only responded to his last statement with a heavy sigh ‘seriously, why’d they send it to you.’</p><p>‘Doesn’t that just come hand in hand with the fact that I picked you up?’ Seungmin rationalises ‘I mean, they’re trying to emulate a real date, you know.’</p><p>But oh, unfortunately for Seungmin, this is only the prelude to his misery. The opening song to an album, if you will.</p><p>‘Bread’s stale.’</p><p>‘Berries are too sweet.’</p><p>‘Air here is too clean, the park I grew up in spread toxins like <em>that</em>.’</p><p>‘The water’s too…fucking beautiful.’ That last one has to illicit a response from Seungmin.</p><p>‘Seriously? Is that a complaint?’ His eyebrows furrow, eyes set on the shorter boy in a mix of fury and disorientation.</p><p>‘Yeah?’ Minho responds, although it sounds like more of a question than anything else, and it’s only then that Seungmin’s registered how he seems to draw in a different kind of sigh, eyes coated with a different kind of ardour, lips downturned in a different kind of tell. He looked peaceful, dazed, caught up in the sight of the river’s water moving sequential to the wind while each medium of vigorous bliss dances and weaves through the other to welcome anyone that needed to feel its calm.</p><p>It seems to welcome Seungmin and Minho so quickly that they stop bickering for a solid 10 minutes while their eyes glue to it and the vivacious gale sweeps through them so obstinately that Seungmin is sure it’s what has them in a trance. But the trance is so calming that he doesn’t find it in him to argue against its hold.</p><p>In fact, it must be nurturing such a tight hold over Minho that it compels him to say the next sentence, with all of his chest, and all of the air in his lungs:</p><p>‘Can you hold my hand?’</p><p>Seungmin almost faints. He’s sure that Minho had probably already thrown him over the woody boundaries in front of them, and that he’s somehow dreamt this entire scenario up while his body floats along with the river’s tiny fish.</p><p>‘Uh– I– do what?’ Is the only thing that sounds past Seungmin’s lips, making him sound like a <em>fucking caveman</em>.</p><p>‘Hold my hand. It’s not whatever you’re thinking, I just get cold easily and my cardigan doesn’t have pockets, so–,’</p><p>Truthfully, despite expressing his confoundment just now, Seungmin hadn’t even begun to listen to Minho’s response, as he’d already been prepping himself up for when he finally reaches over to interweave his own fingers within Minho’s.</p><p>It’s nice.</p><p>That’s the first thing Seungmin’s solid, empty head records. Feeling Minho’s own warm, soft grasp within his was…nice. More than nice, actually, Seungmin would go as far as to say… enjoyable.</p><p>And even as they wordlessly walk past that little spot, moving past countless of other matched couples, savouring the profusion of colours surrounding them, of booths, trees, attractions, that seem to brighten in a different hue, smell a little sweeter. Their hands are still clasped together.</p><p>Even as they meander over the very same grass where an unfortunate picnic had previously rendered Seungmin speechless, they notice how its green strikes them further than before, the splendour of its sculptures, the pungency of its rows of flowery bunches. Their hands again, remain clasped together.</p><p>And much later, when they’re already back in Seungmin’s car, drowning in yet another stretch of silence, after they’d just let go of the familiar grip that had kept them close all day, ever since stopping at that one spot on the pier, Seungmin sees Minho smile.</p><p>‘Maybe I can tolerate a week.’ He finally says, breaking said silence, but somehow still allowing it to linger.</p><p>‘That was my first date.’ Seungmin doesn’t know <em>how</em> or <em>why</em> but the very phrase he’d just uttered out of seemingly nowhere, had been waiting to be voiced out for quite some time. From when it had finally found itself within the boy’s bubble of thoughts as his eyes sometimes shifted back over to Minho, who’d been sipping at his coffee with one hand – the other, obviously, still holding Seungmin’s – while they’d taken refuge on a cow-printed bench (whoever painted this had the right idea) and in a desire to draw a clichéd date to a perfect close, stared out into a nearly cloudless sky while the sun set and caked the sky with <em>bisexual colours</em> (Minho’s words).</p><p>It had just seemed like the kind of scenario a teenage Seungmin would’ve scoffed at upon reading it from a novel. The kind of date he didn’t believe could exist. Ironically, it had only occurred after being formulated by a digital program he did not entirely hold faith in, but even then, it instilled a kind of victorious twist within his chest. Like he’d somehow disproven his past self.</p><p>It takes Minho a few seconds to respond.</p><p>‘I hope it was worthwhile.’</p><p>And then, as Seungmin bites at a corner of his bottom lip, only having just remembered how much time he spent deciding on a proper outfit for the day that very morning, even sifting through tutorial videos to ensure that he wouldn’t butcher the small amount of makeup he’d put on. He hadn’t even realised how much his subconscious craved to make the best out of his first ever real date. Procreated by a program, or not.</p><p>‘It was.’ He demonstrates his brightest grin yet, one eye squinting down more than the other through their own smiles. Minho had noticed this, but only through the talents of a great observer, nothing else.</p><p>The drive back home is <em>nice</em>. They would go even as far as to say…enjoyable.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>grumpy babies</p><p>you can catch me on <a href="https://twitter.com/blues3ung?s=20">twitter !</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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